Why You Should Use Youtube for Teaching
A good example of how resourceful the Internet can be.
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YouTube is a video-sharing platform where users have the freedom to be creative in making videos.
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YouTube is home to a large library of educational content, from every known field and specialty.
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Its features complement educators with private playlists, collaboration, and much more.
To this day, the wonders of the Internet have only continued to surprise us. It has evolved from an overly technical and inaccessible discovery, to a cornerstone of human development.
But why stop there?
Today, the World Wide Web has become a multifaceted dimension. With websites coming in all shapes, sizes, functionality; but most of all, ease of accessibility.
One notable website would be YouTube, perhaps the most well-known video-sharing platform. It’s widely used for its user-friendly interface, its plethora of entertaining videos, and spot-on algorithms.
YouTube is also a massive educational platform for anyone who has access to the Internet.
YouTube: e-Education 101
A Library Of (Entertaining) Information
Being a video-sharing platform where anyone is allowed to post (as long as they’ve created their free Google account), YouTube is already home to an ocean of educational content.
As a good starting point, educators may choose to indulge their classes with videos from TEDx Talks, which in itself, contains a series of over 3,000 entertaining, provocative, and educational lectures.
Or go for more entertaining — but still highly educational — videos with TED-Ed or OpenLearn, both highly held channels with engaging animations to keep your classes attentive and wide-eyed.
Compile Videos Into Your Own Personal Playlist
YouTube has a myriad of features that so happen to complement educators who are looking to add a more interesting dimension to the classroom. Found an interesting video to accompany your next class? Compile them in your own personally curated playlist!
These playlists allow for users to mix and match various videos based on their own customised categories.
To select a video for your playlist, click or tap on the video of your choice, then select the “SAVE” button. This prompts you to either choose an already existing playlist, or to create a new one. So, the next time you need video reference for a class, it’s as simple as clicking the playlist!
“YouTube can be a highly useful option for distant learning. The private privacy settings allow for educators to easily share playlists, through links, to students online.”
Creating Your Own Videos
Sometimes, finding a specific video that accurately reflects your curriculum can be pretty hard to come by. So, instead of settling on hit and misses, why not come up with an original work?
With just minimal video editing skills, teachers and educators can begin creating entire video essays with the help of YouTube’s features!
For your eyes only
Starting with the privacy settings, any videos you choose to upload may be set to ‘private’, which only allows those permitted to watch and leave comments on them.
Collaboration is key
But what if you have a joint class with another teacher? Then just collaborate with them! YouTube allows for more than one host per channel with a feature found under the ‘permissions tab’, which gives educators the flexibility of sharing content.
Additional features
Is your video essay breaking the 10-minute mark? Or just filled with a plethora of information? Then you might want to add hyperlinked timestamps. This allows you, and your students, to jump to and fro between sections of the video that you choose.
Some students having a hard time picking up on audio cues? Then add in captions and subtitles for your videos! YouTube even has a feature that automatically transcribes videos through machine-learning algorithms.
Is YouTube the Future of Education?
Pictures are always thought to be worth a thousand words, so what does that make videos? Utilising videos as a general medium has long been integrated in our lives, and it only makes sense, seeing as videos take traditional words, with the extension of moving pictures.
So, will this make traditional forms of education, such as reading, redundant? Many might argue otherwise.
The basis of education has always been in the form of recording information on a permanent format. Reading it provides for a self-paced passage towards understanding the subject, whereas videos aim to provide information with supplementary materials and the extension of being entertaining.